


A Life Lived

by SaintLeona



Category: Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Epic Friendship, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 03:10:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4860791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintLeona/pseuds/SaintLeona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Inquisition, Varric has new responsibilities.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Life Lived

**Author's Note:**

> Trespasser spoilers. You have been warned.

Varric vows that becoming Viscount will not change him in the slightest, the only exception being the Merchant’s Guild.  He swears he’s never going to another meeting as long as he lives. **  
**

The first time he enters the Hanged Man after the coronation - how he hates that word - he realises it is the rest of the city that needs to make that vow.

No one treats him as Varric, the rogue storyteller with a tongue of silver and a heart of gold.  Now he is the Viscount, the ruler of the city.  They ask him for favors and privileges he can't and won't give.  His nights there are the same as his days - political meetings and official bullshit he would rather do without.

And Maker be damned, all he wants is to drink a mug of terrible ale and play a game of Wicked Grace with his friends.

But mostly, he misses Hawke.

****

Varric knows Hawke has returned to Kirkwall when he hears her snoring.

He opens his eyes and there she is, sleeping next to him, smiling, a tiny trail of drool escaping from the corner of her mouth.  She looks like she’s at peace for the first time he can remember.

Maker forbid he wakes her, so he does the only thing he can do.  He slides out of bed without disturbing her, peeks his head out the bedroom door, and makes sure Bran sends in enough breakfast for two.

****

Bran insists that it just isn’t _proper_ to have a woman living with the Viscount, even if she is the Champion, and even if it is completely platonic.  People are going to talk, especially when they find out they share a bed.

Varric takes one look at Hawke, sitting at the table in her dressing gown, eating her toast with delicate fingers only after licking the jam off the bread, and tells Bran to shove his concerns in the Bone Pit.

It isn’t where he _wants_ to tell his seneschal where to shove it, but one must maintain some sense of decorum.

****

Hawke has a way with politics, which surprises the shit out of Varric.  She manages to break a three week long stalemate between the lumber merchants and the owners of the shipping dock with little more than batted eyelashes.  The dock owners claim it’s Hawke’s heart wrenching pleas on behalf of the poor citizens of Kirkwall; the merchants agree to her arguments that they will only make more money if they all work together.  However, Varric knows the truth: everyone will always agree with the Champion of Kirkwall.

She settles a number of disagreements, and all the interested parties thank her for the opportunity - even the ones that make concessions.  After a month of her help, Varric decides she needs a desk of her own in the Viscount’s office, so he gets her one that matches his down to the last detail.  Watching her try to accommodate herself at a desk designed for a dwarf is worth every sovereign spent on the damn thing.

It doesn’t last long.

Almost a week later, she decides that Varric’s desk is much better than hers, but instead of using it as a normal person, she sits on top of it.  Bran is mortified, and Varric decides that this is a much better arrangement.

****

Hawke is plagued by nightmares. After everything that has happened to her, who can blame her?

Most nights, she handles it.  She paces the bedroom, wringing her hands and hoping to wear herself out before she returns to bed.

But there are the nights when Varric is woken from dreamless sleep by Hawke’s shouts. She claws at the blankets of the bed they share and begs for mercy.  He has no idea what she dreams about - he never asks, and she never tells - but he always holds her until she stops crying.

****

The gala ends up being an eye-opening experience.

Celebrating the new trade agreement between Kirkwall and Cumberland calls for a spectacle, and Varric doesn’t disappoint.  He has the food specially prepared, the best wine and ale available, and even the staff dresses in the finest clothes money can buy.

And when Hawke walks in the room, Varric stops giving a shit about all of it.

He doesn’t know who found the dress she’s wearing - red silk with gold brocade and a slit up to her thigh that skirts the definition of scandalous - but he sends silent thanks to the Maker for it.  She saunters up to him, hips swaying with every step, and hands him a glass of Antivan red before draping an arm around his shoulders.

They walk around the room together, greeting nobles, shaking hands, making toasts, mingling in all the ways they were best at.  No one thinks anything of it when Varric’s arm snakes around her waist and stays there.  

Varric spends the evening tracing circles on her hip, and every time he smooths the silk of her dress over her thigh, she moves a little closer to him.  Hawke's fingers dance in his hair and linger on the shell of his ear until he’s sure she’s torturing him on purpose.

After the last guest leaves, they return to their estate, to their bed, and the rest of the night is lost to clinging hands and desperate kisses.

****

In the spring, on the anniversary of the day they first met, Varric asks her if she wants to be Viscountess.

Hawke laughs in his face.

It takes no small amount of convincing on his part.  Nothing in their day-to-day would change - they rule together, they live together, they sleep together.  The clincher is the promise that she would still be Hawke, because calling her Lady Tethras is simply wrong.

They never make it to a ceremony.  They just start calling each other 'husband' and 'wife' one morning, and everyone assumes they are married.

And really - who is going to ask either one of them for proof?

****

It becomes obvious the office of Viscount isn’t going to be hereditary.  Whenever Bran brings up the subject of appointing an heir, Hawke and Varric make it a game of who can offend him fastest.

Hawke declares herself the winner when she suggests Anders.

****

Hawke passes away first, quietly in her sleep.  It seems a less than fitting end for someone that battled her entire life.

Kirkwall decides to give her a state funeral.  The entire city turns out to say farewell to their Champion.  Flowery speeches are made by every dignitary and official, save one.

Varric says nothing.  For the first time in his life, words fail him.  He stares at the body of his best friend, lying in the middle of the Chantry, and thinks about how much she would hate all this.

He doesn’t cry, either; that is a disservice to her memory.  Instead, he has the Hanged Man bring him the worst ale they have, and he gets blind drunk for a week.

****

In the end, Varric’s heart gives out.

One moment, he’s sitting in a meeting with the city council, and the next he feels himself slumping forward, darkness overtaking his vision.  Voices shout, though they sound like they are at the other end of a tunnel.

And when he opens his eyes again, he’s in the common room of the Hanged Man, which is full to capacity.  Music drifts through the room, though he can’t pinpoint where it’s coming from.  There are faces he doesn’t recognise: the redhead at the bar who is obviously waiting for someone, the large tattooed man using a crossbeam to do pull-ups.  Through the crowd, he spots Isabela standing in her usual place, her laugh ringing above the din.  Anders, Fenris, and Sebastian sit at the table next to the fireplace sharing  a deck of cards and a pitcher of ale.  Aveline is there too, standing with Donnic and another man Varric doesn’t know wearing Templar armour.  Merrill plays on the floor with Hawke’s mabari, and Bethany and Carver take turns hugging Leandra.

And Hawke.  Varric grins, grateful that the years of missing her are over.  She saunters up to him wearing the same red dress from the gala.  She hands him a glass of Antivan red, kisses him on the cheek, and whispers in his ear.  

"Welcome home."

**Author's Note:**

> The epilogue for Trespasser just reinforced the idea that Hawke and Varric end up together for the rest of their lives. 
> 
> This is really different from anything I've written before. I don't usually do present tense, but this idea called for it. And I tend to rely on dialogue, so writing something that only has two words of it was a nice challenge.


End file.
